Losing the SCTP Collegiate Championship to Ohio - Cost $$

Costello urges governor to reopen WSRC
October 22, 2015 Joel Heidel
The state will lose over $100,000 in revenue this month alone due to the cancellation of shooting events at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex, according to state Rep. Jerry Costello II.
“One of the most prominent victims of the state budget impasse is the Scholastic Clay Target Program Collegiate Championships, which was scheduled at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex at the end of October and has instead moved to Ohio,” Costello said. “Between 800 and 1000 participants who were scheduled to come to Sparta and spend their money at southern Illinois hotels, restaurants and gas stations will instead be taking their business to Ohio. Our communities cannot afford to send business out-of-state.”

jmho Those numbers are way inflated. But this is Joe Heidel's story. Not mentioned in the article the SCTP Collegiate Championships will be there next year as will be a regional shoot.

 

Ohioans are not jumping up and down. Not bragging on the site. No atta boys. Could be they don't care. Self entititlement?

 

Drag set? Could be they don't bite.

FlyersAREbest

 

If not for overly inflated numbers (Stated by Costello) there would be no numbers to talk about ... They talk about 10/12 million into the local and regional economy when in fact that is not even close according to the State of Illinois auditors based on tax revenues collected and paid ... Typical Politicians trying to make a point and impress people with big numbers so they find and feel the need ... Simple math can tell the story if you take the numbers they claim (10/12 million) and the amount of people (2007 entry's in the one event) that show up you will come up with a "NO Way" number because there isn't anything in the immediate area to spend that amount of money on ... The "Fantastic Direction" claim is and was a way to try and convince people things are finally starting to happen after 11 years of being dormant ... No business man, or woman would wait 11 plus years for a business to start generating a profit before they pulled the plug and cut their losses ... Cardinal Center will know exactly how many shooters again this year being as they will host the shoot because the State of Illinois slammed the door in their faces when they shuttered the WSRC ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

The Cardinal Center gets busier as the corruption grows in Illinois.

 

THE PROBLEM WITH SPARTA in a nut shell.

The ATA had to have given pumped up figures to the state. Then the state gave more pumped up figures to the political hacks in Chicago. Then they all patted each other on the back. But if you take the amount of shooters that we have in the organization and then back out the motor home shooters that bring their food with them and do not spend much in the town. I very rarely see any of them eating in the restaurants or even shopping in Sparta. The trend over the last 10 or more tears has been more targets shot by a small group of hard core shooters. The loss of the average shooter has hurt the game. They built a quality establishment for the shooting sports and then did not package it to the public to make it profitable.

Now they are grasping at strews and have still not employed competent people to make it a viable enterprise. They are going to have to diversify the uses of the whole place, and that will not be cheap either. Some hard choices must be made by the state. Roger C.

 

Roger is spot on, problem being the State cannot afford to invest more tax dollars in a facility that does not perform in its present state to the point of breaking even ... Sparta, Ill is one of those one time attractions to see life in rural American as it functions on a daily basis ... Hard core trap shooters can care less how or where the people in Sparta or the general area live or what they do for entertainment, they are there to shoot ... The average shooter has been shut out of the game in many ways , adding additional (driving longer distances, gas, and places to stay and eat get expensive) cost to it makes it even less attractive to a lot of grass roots shooters ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Gee....the state losing $100K. Is that what bankrupted Illinois?

 

100 K here, 100 K there and sooner or later you come up with the $1.9 million dollars the State pays for the off set of the generated funds that the WSRC takes in ... This by the way is besides all of the other great investments the State of Illinois has made over the years and sooner or later got bull dozed ... Meigs Field on the lake front comes to mind which is another one of many ... WPT ... (YAC) ...